Paula lives in central Vienna, loves to ride her bike and truly enjoys publishing her photos on this blog. So this is Paula's Diary. A blog, rather than facebook.

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

whereabouts: Backyards and Housing in Vienna

I have a vague idea, what your backyards might look like. In Vienna you find all kinds of backyards, more and less green. This backyard caught my eye:

The setting is very minimalistic and not very cosy. Still I call it a romantic backyard. The painting matches the moss on the tiles matches and the moss on the concrete floor in the front quite well.

The house dates back to 1900. Houses with backyards like the one above are usually about 5 floors high. Almost all apartments are without balconies, terraces or gardens. For decades and centuries the backyards used to be an area where trash bins were lined up. In the 1980's bicycles started to inhabit the backyards. In the 1990's plants followed. And over the past decade tables and chairs and chains of lights followed and complete the setting. The mural is extraordinary, not something you find in many backyards.

The following residential building is located in the 20th district in Vienna, Winarskystraße. The architect Albert Wimmer is known for large projects: central station, housing complexes and hospitals. This building dates back to 2007:

Te next photo has nothing to to with a backyard. I just want to show it to you.

This very un-Viennese superstructure dates back, probably to the early 1990's? I could not find any information regarding the architect who planned this building.
The housing complex reminds me of the abandoned sanatoriums on the
Crimean peninsula. I would like to see an apartment from the inside,
what it must feel like to live with one of these boxes you can see
righthand. (half balcony, half room)

Not very far away we came across new housing complexes with new designs. This is the entrence to an underground carpark. I like it how the street lamps' perspective correlates with the ramp.

Next day (after the rain), new backyards. This bizarre backyard is a corridor. A corridor you are not allowed to enter.
The neighbour to the left is not keen on the neighbour to the right. So many young trees planted on so little place.
The law in Austria says for every tree you cut down, you have to plant a new tree. Or pay. A lot. This might explain, why so many trees have been planted within this narrow green corridor.

What else? I keep on running in the evenings. I am lucky and even make it to Schönbrunn before the gates close. This evening a fox crossed my path. How elegant! What a special appreance. How does not like it when unexpected animals cross his/her path?

While I am writing this posting, a bat almost made it into our living room. Funny sound they make when the make a turn in the last millisecond before flying straight into the apartment, windows wide open at 84°F.